Write to Inspire-Terry Whalin

When we consider various markets for our magazine writing, often we neglect the market right before our eyes—the inspirational, religious marketplace. Maybe we avoid it because it’s the most personal part of our life and experiences.  In reality, this niche market is a wide-open opportunity to write about our personal experiences, lessons we’ve learned from life and the Bible or short stories or the range of articles from the broader marketplace—yet with a spiritual twist.

Years ago, I studied journalism at Indiana University.  I thought I was a hotshot writer who could hit any market.  As a new Christian, I naturally tried the religious marketplace. My writing efforts were last minute, lacked market research and 100% unsuccessful.  Because I failed to take the time to understand the market needs, I ended up writing strange untargeted articles that never appeared in print.

In contrast, years later after college, I gave the energy to research this market and understand it. I’ve written articles for more than 50 of these publications.  I’ve written devotionals, how-to articles, fiction stories, personality profiles, round-ups (a feature on a particular type of book like financial books or devotional books), book reviews and much more.

The motivation for writing about spiritual matters is more than the simple desire to be published.  Often the deeper motivation is to capture some experience, spiritual thought or how-to which motivates the reader into a deeper relationship with God.  The range of possible articles and age groups is a broad as your imagination.  Almost 700 inspirational magazines provide infinite possibilities for your writing.

This market requires a certain commitment to studying the publication, carefully reading the guidelines, then writing your article with a particular market in mind.  Often because the motivation for a particular article is beyond simply getting into print or being paid, the editors are more approachable and responsive to working with new authors.  While my last statement is true, it’s not always the case.  Often these publications are overwhelmed with poorly written, unfocused submissions.

If you study these religious publications, then appeal to their particular niche in the market with well-crafted storytelling, then I almost guarantee that your material will be carefully read, considered, then possibly published.

You can find these markets in your local Christian bookstore or publications, which you read weekly at your church.  Also your church library is a good source of various publications.  What type of religious material do you read on a regular basis? If you read a devotional guide like Quiet Hour  or The Upper Room, then through your life experiences, you have been gaining the background to write similar types of material.  Do you enjoy reading about the lives of other people, then you can write spiritually-based, personality profiles.  I’ve written about people like Disney Animator, Glen Keane (who created Beast in Beauty and the Beast) or best-selling author Janette Oke.

The stories don’t have to be complicated or involve interviewing someone famous.  The source material can come from your personal life.   When I lost a son years ago, we taught his older brother about death.  I wrote down the anecdotes from the experience and weaved it into an article called “Schooled In Death.”  Or I captured the story of my own spiritual journey through another personal experience article called “Two Words That Changed My Life.”

Every article is different and the publications are distinct. You can learn the skills to put together an excellent magazine article and write to inspire others. It’s important to write for their guidelines, then send in your material for consideration. You can write these magazine articles but it will involve learning then putting it into practice.

Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor, Whalin has written for more than 50 publications including Christianity Today and Writer’s Digest. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. His latest book is Billy Graham, A Biography of America’s Greatest Evangelist and the book website is at: http://BillyGrahamBio.com Watch the short book trailer for Billy Graham at: http://bit.ly/BillyGrahamBT His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/terrywhalin